French President Emmanuel Macron has warned the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia against making belligerent statements on the recent developments inside Iran, calling on them to tone down their rhetoric which, he said, could lead to “war.”

“The official line pursued by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are our allies in many ways, is almost one that would lead us to war,” Macron told reporters on Wednesday.

The French president warned that for some countries, such a hostile policy is a “deliberate strategy.”

Macron underlined the need to maintain “permanent dialog” with Iran in an attempt to balance ties with Tehran while seeking channels to “increase international pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

“Otherwise, we end up surreptitiously rebuilding an ‘axis of evil,’” referring to the term used in 2002 by the then US president, George W. Bush, to call Iran, Iraq and North Korea in an attempt to rally support for launching a military campaign abroad under the pretext of fighting terror.

Macron further warned that the US and its allies risk engaging in a “conflict of extreme brutality” by sticking to their current hostile policies against Iran.